Northern Pass Announces Contractors for Project’s Construction

MANCHESTER, N.H. April 21, 2016 – Northern Pass Transmission LLC has secured agreements with a highly experienced team of contractors and material suppliers who will execute the engineering, design and construction of the Northern Pass transmission line once the project receives state and federal permits.

“The knowledge and expertise these industry-leading companies bring to the project will complement the strengths that Eversource and Hydro-Québec have demonstrated as award-winning energy project developers,” said Bill Quinlan, president of Eversource Operations in New Hampshire. “Securing agreements with these contractors now puts Northern Pass in a strong position to begin the construction phase as soon as all permits are secured.”

Project construction partners include:

PAR Electrical Contractors, Inc. (PAR) will serve as the General Contractor for the project, responsible for overall project management, schedule and cost control, coordinating the work of all contractors and material suppliers, and procuring materials as needed. PAR will construct all overhead portions of the lines, build all substations and transition stations, install the duct bank, and perform the horizontal directional drilling on the underground segments of the line. PAR’s New Hampshire office is in the town of Bow. The company is a subsidiary of Quanta Services, which is the largest transmission and distribution specialty contractor in North America.

Burns and McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc. is an engineering and design firm based in Kansas City, Missouri, with offices throughout New England, including Manchester. Burns and McDonnell has been working with Northern Pass since the early stages of its development and will continue to be engaged as part of the project team.

ABB is a global leader in power and automation technologies. It will engineer and fabricate the underground DC cable and the converter station in Franklin, as well as equipment at the Deerfield substation required to support interconnecting the Northern Pass line to the regional electric grid.

M.J. Electric, LLC (MJE), another subsidiary of Quanta Services, will work with ABB to engineer and construct the converter station.

Northern Pass has also secured prices on all significant materials and equipment that will be used to build both the overhead and underground portions of the line, which helps solidify the project cost estimate of $1.6 billion.

In 2015, Eversource announced its New Hampshire First jobs initiative, including its commitment to hiring New Hampshire workers whenever possible for construction of Northern Pass. Eversource is partnering with local non-union contractors and electrical workers’ unions to help construct and maintain more than $2 billion in proposed energy projects throughout the state, including Northern Pass.

“Northern Pass will provide a unique opportunity to work on one of the largest infrastructure projects in state history,” said Quinlan. “I have spoken to many highly-skilled men and women around the state who are eager to work on a multi-year project close to home. The project is going to provide significant opportunities for a wide range of New Hampshire workers.”

In the coming months, Northern Pass and its contractors will host events throughout New Hampshire that will provide local subcontractors an opportunity to discuss the general construction approach for the project, including the sequencing of the work, what local skills and resources will be required, and how the hiring process will occur. Northern Pass will create 2,600 jobs during construction, including: logging, excavating, gravel, trucking, concrete, electrical utility work, paving, fencing and landscaping. In addition, the project will require other general services and materials, including traffic control, security, equipment rental, waste management, among others.

Northern Pass is a 192-mile high-voltage transmission line that will connect New Hampshire and the New England electric grid to 1,090 megawatts of clean, renewable hydropower generated in Canada. The project is currently in the process of securing state and federal permits, and is projected to begin construction in 2017 and be operational in mid-2019.

Eversource (NYSE: ES) transmits and delivers electricity and natural gas for more than 3.6 million electric and natural gas customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Recognized as the top-ranked “green” utility in the U.S. by Newsweek magazine, Eversource harnesses the commitment of its approximately 8,000 employees across three states to build a single, united company around the mission of delivering reliable energy and superior customer service. For more information, please visit our website (www.eversource.com) and follow us on Twitter (@EversourceCorp) and Facebook (facebook.com/EversourceEnergy).